


Better Next Time

by sunshineflying



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blizzards & Snowstorms, F/M, New York City, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-25 23:46:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13223757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshineflying/pseuds/sunshineflying
Summary: Still aching from her last relationship, Rey wants to move on with her life. Her roommate Finn and his boyfriend Poe encourage her to try online dating and maybe consider a one night stand as a way to get back out into the dating world. When her one night stand is extended thanks to a massive blizzard that shuts down New York City, Rey finds herself trying to find common ground with a complete stranger.A modern Kylo/Rey AU inspired by the movie Two Night Stand.





	Better Next Time

**Author's Note:**

> I never would have guessed my first Star Wars fic ever would be this one, but here we are. You most definitely do not need to have seen the movie Two Night Stand, though I encourage it just because it's funny, and this diverges from that just enough to give you a unique experience there.
> 
> Un-beta'd, so all mistakes are my own. I do hope you enjoy. Happy 2018! xx

**Sunday, 8:37 am**

Rey’s eyes flutter open, the stillness and silence startling for her. She’s used to a loud, bustling morning most of the time. Her roommate Finn likes to wake up early, have a big breakfast, and go to the gym. Sometimes - most of the time, these days - his boyfriend Poe is there too, grumbling about the early hour but never actually going back to bed. 

The stillness is alarming. It’s far too quiet.

Rey looks around, taking in her surroundings. She didn’t get drunk the night before, but being so unfamiliar with the place, it’s jarring to still be there. She’s dressed, but barely, wearing panties and a tank top. The blankets are warm.

There’s a strange man in bed beside her.

The man she’d slept with last night.

Casually.

Casual sex isn’t something Rey does, not usually. She had no reason to, having spent the last five years of her life in a committed relationship. But now she’s here, next to a man much larger in stature than anyone else she’s ever been with, and he’s snoring softly. He hasn’t noticed her shifting around in the bed at all.

Very, very quietly, Rey slips out of bed. The hardwood floors are frigid beneath her feet as she frantically searches for the rest of her clothes. She finds them strewn about, interspersed with the man’s. Kyle, she thinks his name was, but she doesn’t know for sure. 

It doesn’t matter, really.

Rey dresses quickly and determinedly makes her way to the door. If she’s quiet for just a few moments longer, she can sneak out before Kyle wakes up and she won’t ever have to speak to him again. She knows what she did wasn’t wrong, per se. She’s a grown woman and is allowed to have casual sex with people if she wants. But she still feels guilty, leaving him to wake up to an empty bed.

She can’t face him, though, not when she’s so jumbled up in her head. The morning after, now that she’s had time to think, she feels bad for what she’s done. She can’t get past the horrible, sinking feeling that she’s cheated, even though she hasn’t. Rey knows that rationally, she was well within her rights to sleep with this guy. But she’s too newly single for it to still feel okay.

Being around Kyle will just make her feel worse, or more confused, she’s sure of it. Being around her roommate and best friend, Finn, though - that will help. And that’s exactly where she’s trying to go.

The moment the door opens, she hears a ticking noise next to her. With sheer panic, she realizes it’s his door alarm, and he’d remembered to arm it the night before. Startled and panicked at the thought of being caught, Rey tosses her purse back on the table and bolts to the bed. She clambers under the blankets once more and pretends to be asleep as she hears the alarm bracing itself to go off, loud and angry. She’s been caught, and now she has to face him.

Rey is not ready for this.

\--

**Saturday, 7:22 pm**

Rey sighs as she flicks through the television channels for what feels like the hundredth time. There’s nothing good on TV. She picks at a hole in her old grungy tee shirt, already in her pajamas because she’s sure she won’t have Saturday night plans. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Rey has found that she does nothing  _ but _ sleep in New York now that she’s not seeing anybody. All those ads for the city were a total lie.

She hears a key in the lock of the door and looks up eagerly, glad to have her roommate home so there’s someone to talk to. Sure enough, Finn walks in, bright eyed and smiling as he does. He’s laughing at something, and that’s the moment Rey realizes he’s brought his boyfriend Poe with him. 

Finn has been spending much more time with Poe recently. She tries not to feel slighted or hurt, but sometimes she does anyway. When he spots Rey, his smile fades a little, and he asks, “How long have you been here?”

“Well… I didn’t work today, so…” Rey replies awkwardly.

“Are those the same pajamas you were last night?” Finn wonders.

Rey throws a pillow at him. Poe catches it with his stupid expert reflexes while they kick off their snow-covered shoes in the doorway. When they wander further into the apartment, Rey notes that Poe looks more dressed up than usual; he’s wearing clean dark jeans and there’s a nice plaid button-down under his nicer leather jacket. He doesn’t look like he’s come straight from the garage where he works.

They’re going out, which means Rey gets to spend another night at home, alone.

“Come on, Rey, you can’t mope around inside forever,” Finn shouts from his bedroom. He’s quickly changing so he can leave with Poe again, to wherever they’re going.

Rolling her eyes, Rey responds, “It’s cold outside. I’d just rather not freeze every night.”

“You know, your excuses get worse every time you need one,” Finn argues.

Rey huffs. “I don’t know what you expect me to do, Finn.”

Rather than shouting from the other room, Finn wanders out in new jeans, but the same sweater. He’s even left his jacket on. He sits down on the sofa next to Rey to slide on some clean socks and a newer pair of shoes. “You should come out with us tonight,” he offers. 

Finn glances up at Poe, who nods. “Yeah, it’s my buddy Snap’s birthday party. We could set you up with him! He’s a good guy, real funny,” Poe adds.

Rey looks completely exasperated. “Even if I say I don’t want to go, you won’t leave me alone until I agree, will you?”

Finn and Poe beam at her.

“Ugh, fine,” Rey groans, stomping into her bedroom. 

She can hear the faint rumbles of Finn and Poe having a conversation, their low voices carrying throughout the apartment thanks to the thin walls. She can’t make out what they’re saying, but in her paranoia, she assumes they’re talking about her. Discussing how to “help” her. 

Knowing it’s cold outside, Rey layers up, wearing some thin tights under her skinny jeans, and a tank top under a long sleeved shirt under a sweater, just for good measure. She’s never quite liked the bitter cold of New York. She only came here for  _ him _ .

She doesn’t bother with makeup - she never does - and only puts one bun in her hair this time, a little knot at the crown of her head with half the hair left down, draping over her shoulders. Her efforts must be satisfactory, because Finn and Poe both smile at her when she reemerges. “Alright, let’s get this party started!” Poe says excitedly.

Rey bundles up in her jacket and some boots, and together the three of them trudge out of the apartment. There’s a dusting of snow on the ground, but it’s only around an inch. It’s beautiful out, if Rey is being honest, but she keeps that thought to herself. She doesn’t want Finn and Poe to know how long she’s actually been indoors that week. Truth be told, she hadn’t left her apartment in three days.

Snap’s birthday party is at a bar down the street, one Rey used to go to all the time with her ex-fiancé. Finn knows this, and he can sense that it bothers her, so he puts a hand between her shoulders to brace her as they approach the bouncer. Finn and Poe both hold out their IDs, and then turn to Rey.

Her eyes have gone wide, and she starts patting her pockets. “Isn’t it in your purse?” Poe asks. “Girls fill those things with all kinds of useful crap, don’t they?”

Rey starts to dig around in her purse as well, but she comes up short. She looks helplessly at Finn and Poe, and then looks at the bouncer. “I used to come here all the time, with my fiancé. I’m sure you recognize me,” she tries lamely. “They can prove it, too. They know how old I am.”

“You sure don’t look twenty-one,” the bouncer replies flatly.

He looks behind her at a couple, and to Rey’s horror, she glances over her shoulder to see the very man she was talking about: her ex-fiancé. They exchange glances, and he and his new girl hold up their ID cards. The bouncer nods and they’re free to go in. “Hi,” he says awkwardly.

“Hi,” replies Rey tersely.

“You look good,” he adds.

Rey’s eyes narrow. “No I don’t.”

“You really don’t,” the bouncer adds, fueling the fire and making her think that he  _ does _ know who she is, after all.

Torn between screaming and crying in frustration, Rey looks at Finn and Poe helplessly. “Just go in. Have fun for me. We can do this another time,” she says softly.

She watches her ex-fiancé walk into the bar, his arm wound tightly around the waist of his new girlfriend, and sniffles in spite of herself. Finn looks concerned, so he asks, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine,” she nods, plastering on a fake smile. “You know, this is probably for the best, anyway. I’ll go clean the apartment or something. Exciting Saturday night things, you know.”

Poe snorts. “You’re not going to clean anything, Rey.”

“You don’t have to,” Finn adds. “Just… don’t do anything stupid, alright? We’ll be home in a few hours. Then we can hang out.”

The way Poe is nuzzling his cold nose at Finn’s warm neck says otherwise, though, and Rey knows she only has a few hours before they ask her to leave so they can have sex. They stopped pretending they were doing anything else about five months ago after they’d caught Rey and her fiancé together, but now it was just weird. Finn and Poe were happy. Rey was alone.

“Sure,” she nods politely. “I’ll see you later.”

Shivering in the cold, Rey stuffs her hands in the pockets of her coat and turns on her heel, retreating back to her cramped, cold, empty apartment. The first thing she does when she gets home is open the half-finished bottle of cheap wine from Trader Joe’s, wincing at the dryness. She’s never really gotten used to the flavor of wine. It reminds her too much of a church one of her foster families kept forcing her to go to as a child.

The alcohol does the trick though, giving her a little liquid courage. As she mindlessly scrolls through Facebook on her laptop, she sees an ad for a dating website. Rey eyes it critically, as though it’s reaching out to her, speaking to her, trying to persuade her to try something as crazy as online dating. Men on online dating… they only want one thing, right? 

_ Most _ men only want one thing.

“Well,” Rey mumbles to herself, clicking the link. “What have I got to lose?”

The website is unintimidating, something plain and simple, and it’s free, which is a bonus. She types in information about herself like her name (Rey), her age (23), and her career (currently fielding offers). She doesn’t particularly want to admit that she only works part time at the Union Square Starbucks and Finn pays most of the rent. 

For her relationship status, she hovers between two options: single and newly single. “What’s the difference?” she mumbles angrily, trying to decide between the two.

Finally, she decides that she ought to be completely honest for at least one of these questions, so she clicks newly single and tries to ignore the twinge of pain in her chest as she does so. She’s not single by choice, and it still stings, but she isn’t exactly jumping into online dating to meet the love of her life. She’s following Poe’s advice that she just needs to have some casual sex and use that to move on from the heartache. Rey isn’t sure it will work, but Poe is older and every once in a while he’s wiser, too.

Her cheeks tint a dark crimson at the next question, which asks what she’s looking for, describing rather vanilla things like cuddling and conversation, all the way up to far more scandalous options like 69ing, backdoor, and 50 Shades of Grey. She checks an embarrassingly small amount of boxes on that question and moves on, her heart thrumming at the thought of some people using the internet to look for dirty things like  _ that _ .

Once her profile is done, she sits and stares at the screen for a moment. The entire thing feels completely ridiculous. Nobody is going to be interested in  _ her _ . But then she starts getting messages, and her skepticism turns into curiosity.

She opens the first message, feeling optimistic. Rey nearly tosses her laptop across the room when she sees what she’s been sent, shrieking as she does so. “I did  _ not _ need to see that!” she shouts.

Trying to look at the screen through squinted eyes, she deletes the message from dick-pic guy and makes sure to block him. A few other guys, though… they look promising. Rey is picky though, and she’s not particularly bothered about whether she’ll find someone on the website.

> bradboii78 doesn’t use capital letters?  _ Delete _ .
> 
> jetsfan14 said “sup.”  _ Delete. _
> 
> 2sexy4u doesn’t even need to say anything, because their username is terrible.  _ Delete _ .

Rey is about to give up when there’s another  _ ping! _ sound and a new message comes in.

> kylonotkyle: Hey, how are you tonight?

Correct punctuation, normal sounding username… so far, so good. She decides to humor him, to see what this guy is like.

> reyoflight: I’m good, and you?
> 
> kylonotkyle: I’m good, too. A little bored.
> 
> reyoflight: You and me both.
> 
> kylonotkyle: Would you like to go out and grab a drink or something?

Rey’s fingers dance nervously over the keys of her keyboard. She could say yes, and hope that they end up at his place since Finn and Poe will very likely want the apartment to themselves when they get back, or she could be more forward. 

> reyoflight: I was actually hoping we could hang out at your place. My roommate and his boyfriend will be back in a few hours and I’ll very likely be sexiled.
> 
> kylonotkyle: Haha, yeah you can come over. I have some beer in the fridge. Do you like beer?
> 
> reyoflight: I like anything.

That’s a blatant lie, and she’s being far more forward than she’s ever been before, but this is actually quite exhilarating. Rey’s heart is pounding, and her palms are a little clammy, but she’s doing this. She’s going to a stranger’s apartment to do god knows what, and it’s actually sort of exciting.

> kylonotkyle: Anything, huh?
> 
> reyoflight: Before I come over, can we video call? I should probably at least do the psycho test before I go out in this weather.

Rather than typing out a response, the man - Kylo, not Kyle, as his username suggests - initiates a video call. Rey answers, feeling a little nervous when she does. Her breath catches at the sight of him, and she feels absolutely ridiculous for it. He’s got dark hair and dark eyes, but his skin is so fair. His freckles catch her eye immediately, so unique, something she’s never seen on a man before, not in this way, at least. He looks as nervous as she feels, so she smiles as warmly as she can. “Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” Kylo replies. “I’m Kylo,” he says. It’s redundant of him to say so, but Rey appreciates that he did anyway.

“I’m Rey,” she responds.

“Well, here’s my apartment,” he says awkwardly, leaning out of the frame of the camera. “Just a plain old boring shoebox in Brooklyn.”

“Brooklyn!?” Rey asks, a little shocked.

Kylo laughs, and Rey wonders if he knows just how nervous he sounds. “Where do you live?”

“East Village.”

For a moment, Rey wonders if it’s worth it, making the trip all the way out here. “Well, I have pizza, and beer, and… me. If you still wanted to make the trip,” he offers awkwardly.

Her voice goes softer, more tender as she says, “I still want to.”

Kylo gives her his address and she quickly calculates the most direct route to take to get there. It’ll take at least one subway transfer, maybe two, but it’ll be worth it if it means shaking the sadness of her ex and giving Finn and Poe some time alone.

The call ends and Rey leaves a quick note on the counter for Finn -  _ Gone out! See you tomorrow! _ \- and then treks down the street to the nearest subway entrance.

\--

**Sunday, 8:38 am**

Rey jumps out of her skin when the alarm starts to go off, even though she’d known it was going to happen. She sits up, watching as Kylo awkwardly shuffles across the apartment to the door to turn off the alarm, clad in only a tee shirt and boxers. The hardwood floor must be so cold on his bare feet.

He looks groggy, his hair is an absolute mess, and even as he trudges back to the bed after turning off the alarm, he looks ready to go back to sleep. “Hey, so… I was thinking…” Rey starts awkwardly as Kylo climbs back into bed. “I should probably get going.”

Kylo mumbles something incoherent.

Gently, she jostles his shoulder. “Kylo, I need to go,” she adds.

“Just a few more minutes?” he mumbles, rolling onto his side. He reaches out to slide an arm around her waist and that’s when he realizes: she’s in her jacket. She’s ready to leave.

Kylo wakes up a little faster now, albeit somewhat unpleasantly. “You’re… in your jacket.”

“I told you, I have to leave.”

A frown crosses his features and there’s a flash of something in his eyes that scares Rey, just a little. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. She just doesn’t know what one is supposed to do on the morning after. She’s never encountered this.

“Was this…?” Kylo trails off.

“Don’t get angry, please,” Rey pleads. “I should just… be going.”

“You used me?”

Full of frustration, Rey replies, “I thought we were using each other! I thought that’s what this was!”

Kylo sighs heavily, running a hand down his face. Rey aches for him, knows that what she’s doing is probably hurting his feelings, but she doesn’t know how on earth to have a conversation with someone for the first time  _ after  _ they’ve had sex. “I should have known. A girl as beautiful as you…” he trails off, muttering the rest under his breath.

“Kylo…”

“No, it’s fine,” Kylo sighs. “You got off, now you want to get out. I understand.”

Suddenly filled with anger at his reaction, Rey asks, “Are you  _ slut shaming _ me? For what I thought was a  _ mutually agreed upon _ hookup?”

“No, I’m not slut shaming you at all,” Kylo says as he tugs on a pair of jeans, the same dark denim ones he was wearing the night before. “Not at all.”

Rey crosses her arms. His tone totally says otherwise. “You are. You’re slut shaming me because we had sex and I didn’t want to stick around.”

“You know, you’re right. You should probably just leave,” Kylo says.

He walks to the door that Rey had tried to escape just a few minutes earlier and keys in the code so it won’t beep. Then he opens it and gestures to the stairwell outside. Rey narrows her eyes at him, anger clear across her face. “Fine. I will.”

Rey stomps out the door and down the stairs, mumbling under her breath about how insensitive Kylo was being. It wasn’t so crazy that a random hookup would want to leave right away the morning after. Hell, she’d even call Poe to corroborate that fact, because she’s confident that he would. Before Finn, this sort of thing was the only thing he knew. Hookups. Casual sex. It was something Rey still hadn’t quite perfected - and wasn’t sure she wanted to if it’d cause this much trouble.

When she finally reaches the bottom of the stairs, her stomach sinks. She can’t see out the window - the buildings that she knows are across the street are masked behind the blowing, swirling sheets of snow falling from the sky. Sighing, Rey resigns herself to suffer through a very long commute back to the East Village.

But the door won’t budge. She shoves at it once, twice, three times, but it won’t move. Standing on her tip-toes to peek out the window, Rey is filled with dread as she realizes the snow has drifted over halfway up the door. She’s trapped.

She’s trapped at Kylo’s apartment, and she’s currently on his bad side.

Frowning, Rey sits down on the bottom stair and buries her face in her hands. She needs a plan, someone to rescue her maybe. She considers calling Finn, but knowing Finn and Poe, their phones aren’t in the room with them and they’re still going to be asleep for hours. She tries anyway, though, and is filled with more and more dread as the phone keeps ringing and ringing.

“She’s absolutely insufferable. Like, probably one of the worst hookups ever,” booms a familiar voice. It gets louder, along with footsteps, and Rey realizes with dread that it’s Kylo, talking about  _ her _ . “No, she just got up and left.” Pause. “I  _ wanted _ to, but she kept saying she had to leave. Like I was just some cheap thrill.” Pause. “ _ Yes _ , I’ll still make breakfast for  _ myself _ .”

Rey stands so Kylo won’t step on her, and when he sees her, his eyes go wide. “Sorry, mom, I’ll call you later,” he mumbles, before hanging up the phone and shoving it in his pocket.

“What’s the matter?” he asks. “Felt too guilty to leave?”

Biting her lip, Rey awkwardly gestures over her shoulder. “The door’s stuck.”

Kylo rolls his eyes and sets down the laundry basket he’d been carrying in his other hand. He sighs and says, “You New Yorkers are such wimps when it comes to snow.”

“I’m from  _ England _ .”

“Even worse,” Kylo says. “You think this is bad, try a winter up in Minnesota.”

Rey studies Kylo curiously. She’d never have guessed he was from somewhere as small as that. He shoves at the door once, twice, and three times just as she had, but it doesn’t budge. “Huh,” Kylo says dumbly. “Yeah, that’s… that’s stuck. That’s a lot of snow.”

\--

Rey slouches on Kylo’s sofa, watching as the weatherman on TV says that the snowstorm is only just getting started, and that there’s much more where this is all coming from. She feels a knot of dread twist in her stomach; she’d burned her bridge with Kylo, and now here she was, stuck in his apartment. She’s lucky he let her in at all. 

She hears clicking and clanking in the kitchen where he’s making some breakfast. It smells delicious, but Rey thinks that maybe he’s not going to share, not after her accusations and the terrible things they shouted at each other.

Kylo surprises her by bringing a plate heaped with breakfast - eggs, toast, sausages  _ and _ bacon. It’s warm and delicious and something about Kylo’s gesture just makes her feel even more awkward in his home. “I’m sorry,” she says finally. “I shouldn’t have tried to run off like that. Not when you were so kind as to let me stay here while my roommate wanted the apartment to himself.”

“Thank you,” Kylo says. Rey and Kylo eat in silence as she wonders whether he’s going to apologize, too.

Finally, he says, “I’m sorry, too. If you thought I was slut shaming you. I wasn’t. I just… don’t usually do this. I didn’t expect you to run off right away.”

“Sometimes girls do. Sometimes guys do. That’s just how this goes.”

They’re quiet again, nothing but the  _ crunch! _ as Rey takes a bite of toast to fill the awkward silence between them. Hesitantly, after far too much awkward silence has passed, Kylo suggests, “How about we just forget about it?”

“Forget about what?”

Rey looks over at Kylo, who seems to be pointedly avoiding her gaze. “Forget that we had sex,” he says simply. “That’s clearly complicating a lot.”

The faintest traces of a smile begin to appear on Rey’s face. “Thank you,” she says. “But -- I don’t know if I can do that.” Kylo glances up, and she shakes her head. “I’ve seen your penis. You’ve implied I’m a slut. Those are big things. We can’t just forget them so easily.”

“Did you just call my penis big?”

Rey looks like a fish out of water.  _ That’s _ what he took from that!? “Um, no,” Rey says, her cheeks pink. “No, I am not. I called the  _ implication _ of your penis big.”

Kylo shrugs and turns back to his breakfast. “Well, it’s still nice to hear.”

Rey snorts, and they both smile into their plates of breakfast, not looking at the other, but clearly able to sense that they’ve made it past the first hurdle.

After breakfast, Kylo cleans up the dishes while Rey disappears into the bathroom to try to freshen up just a little. She doesn’t want to shower there, because that feels a little too permanent, but she could do to get a few snarls out of her hair and wash up a little.

While in the bathroom, she spots one of the magazines he has on the counter. She pages through it casually, curious. It’s not a magazine she usually reads. When she finds one article in particular, she stops and stares at it for a moment, feeling a little offended:  **Five Types of Girls You’ll Meet Online** . The first three are nothing like her, but the fourth… when she reads it, Rey feels like her heart has been wrenched from her chest. Every word on that page is accurate, down to the very last word. 

Angrily, she rips the page from the magazine and shoves it in the toilet. She’s not even thinking as she flushes the toilet, washes her hands again, and then leaves the room.

It may only be ten o’clock in the morning, but after the morning she’s had, Rey gratefully takes the beer Kylo offers her as soon as she emerges. It’s going to be a long day.

They sit around in front of the television, drinking beer and watching the weather forecast on loop. Kylo feels awkward in his own skin even on the best of days, so as he sits around with Rey, this new girl, this beautiful woman who’s firey and independent and so unlike the women he usually meets, Kylo has no idea what to say or do. Every once in a while, Rey will mention something when she’s reminded of it by a TV commercial. Kylo likes those moments. He’s somehow managed to learn that she always eats grilled cheese sandwiches when she’s upset, and that they’re one of her favorite things she’s had since coming to America. He’s also learned that she hates romantic comedies, at least as of recently. He couldn’t get her to open up about that one.

Kylo confesses to her that his closest friend is actually his mother, which is incredibly embarrassing but explains why he’d been on the phone with her earlier. He also admits that he has a job in a bank in Manhattan but despises it.

When the weather forecast just becomes more ominous around one o’clock that afternoon, Rey finally grumbles, “Turn it off!”

Kylo willingly obliges, opting instead to turn on some music. He just has his playlist going, a random combination of all the songs he enjoys. They sit on the sofa still, in silence, even as the music goes. The music doesn’t foster conversation the way the television had, but they’re strangers, and they’ve had sex, and they don’t know what comes next.

The beer helps.

When one particular song comes on, Rey groans. “What’s wrong?” Kylo asks.

“This  _ song _ ,” Rey grumbles. “It’s -,”

“I can turn it off,” Kylo offers automatically. “Or skip it.”

Rey glances over at him. He’s awfully willing to bend to other peoples’ will. She wonders how often he actually acts for himself, not those around him. “No, it’s alright. Just don’t let me dance to it.”

“You like the song?” he asks. He’d assumed that her groaning meant she disliked the song. Rey smiles, her eyes closing, and she nods. She even hums along. Kylo thinks her singing voice is beautiful. “Why don’t you want to hear it, then?” he wonders.

The easy answer is that it’s the song that was playing when she and her ex-fiancé danced together for the first time, at a mutual friend’s wedding. They’d purposely chosen it because it wasn’t slow, so it took some of the pressure off of their new relationship. The answer Rey gives, though, is entirely different, though not untrue. “If you leave it on, I’m going to dance,” she explains, her voice a bit breathy. “And if I dance, you’ll forget all the reasons why you ever liked me, because I’m a terrible dancer.”

Kylo swallows as he watches her get lost in the music, humming along, head tipped back, eyes closed, a small smile on her lips. “I doubt that,” he responds, his mouth a bit dry.

Rey peeks open one eye to look at Kylo. “I can prove it.”

“You should,” Kylo nods.

He holds out his hand to her, and she takes it with a light touch. Right there in the middle of his living room, they stand and start dancing to the upbeat song, the song that nobody probably intended for people to dance to. Rey’s moves are awkward, a little robotic. She moves like she’s never had a dance lesson before in her life, like she’s stiff in places people are only stiff once they pass the age of fifty. Maybe on a girl he’s never met, it would be a turn-off for Kylo, but he finds that somehow, this awkward thrashing of her limbs and bopping of her head to the music actually  _ suits _ Rey.

Rey looks at him with a glint of something in her eye, an expression Kylo has never received from anyone before. “I told you,” she says simply. “I’m a terrible dancer.”

Kylo slides an arm around her waist as the song ends and shrugs. “It’s cute.”

Rey looks up into Kylo’s eyes, pleasantly surprised at his reaction to her dancing. They’re calm and still, matching the song that comes on next. Rey wonders if he’s going to kiss her again. She wonders if he’ll be as gentle, as reverent as he was the night before.

She doesn’t get her answer, though, because instead she hears Kylo mutter, “What the fuck?” and they step awkwardly towards the TV.

Kylo looks down at his feet where there’s a trail of water coming across the floor. Her eyes follow it, as do Kylo’s, and it leads directly to the bathroom. Rey feels her stomach drop to the floor. “What did you do?” he asks.

Clearly embarrassed, Rey says, “No, don’t go in there! I’ll take care of it.”

The flooding toilet makes a very clear implication about some things Rey would rather not disclose to Kylo. She knows what he’s thinking, and it’s gross and humiliating.  _ Rey _ knows it’s the stupid crumpled up magazine paper, but Kylo… he thinks it’s something else.

“Where’s your plunger?!” Rey asks frantically, searching the bathroom.

“It should be right there!” Kylo says, sounding equally as frazzled as he points to the empty space between the toilet and shower.

“Men!” Rey grumbles. She looks around, but sees nothing.

Kylo starts to drop towel after towel on the floor around the flooding toilet, and Rey suddenly gets an idea. “I’ll call Finn! We have one, I’ll make him bring it over.”

“Rey, the roads are closed. He can’t get through.”

“He’s a medic!” Rey offers. “He can use an ambulance. They can get through anything.”

“No, not this snow,” Kylo says. “Trust me. We just…” He looks around, and then realization crosses his face. “I lent it to Hux. It’s across the hall.”

“You  _ lent out your plunger _ ?! That is absolutely disgusting!” Rey shrieks.

“What’s disgusting is what you did to my  _ toilet _ !” Kylo counters.

Fuming and red-faced from anger and embarrassment, Rey follows Kylo out the door and across the hall. Kylo pounds on the door but nobody answers. Rey looks around, and then turns back to Kylo. “Is it possible he left town because Christmas was three days ago?” she suggests glumly.

Kylo’s expression falls. He looks up and down the hallway, and then along the floor, before his eyes settle on Rey. Namely, on her head. “What?” Rey asks.

Rather than speaking, Kylo reaches out and plucks a hair pin from Rey’s hair. “Hey!” she protests.

“I need it to fix the mess you made,” Kylo replies simply.

He kneels down and starts to pick at the lock on Hux’s door. “What if he has an alarm like you do, and you set it off? What then?” she argues.

“I know the code.”

Rey huffs and stands in the hallway, arms crossed. She will not put herself at risk of being charged for breaking and entering. Instead, she stands watch in the hallway, waiting for Kylo to retrieve the plunger and lock Hux’s apartment up again.

Thankfully, Kylo succeeds without any incident. “How did you learn to pick locks?” Rey asks curiously as they walk back into Kylo’s apartment.

The frantic air surrounding them is gone now that they have the tools they need to fix the situation. She also doesn’t insist on fixing the toilet, because she’s more distracted by the fact that this man who seemed so wholesome can actually break into a New York apartment with very little effort. It’s a bit startling how Kylo can be light one moment and dark the next. 

“My dad would always lock me out of his garage,” Kylo says. “Didn’t want me going near this stupid old car he’d had since he was a teenager. He called it the Falcon.” Rey follows him into the bathroom where he starts working at the toilet to fix the clog. “I just wanted to  _ see _ it. I didn’t even want to drive it. So I taught myself how to pick locks so I could go into the garage at night and see it.”

“And was it everything you’d hoped for?”

Kylo shakes his head as he finally manages to get out whatever was stuck in the toilet. “It was a big ol’ rust bucket. We scrapped it when my dad died,” he replies simply.

When he sees what it was that was clogging the toilet, Kylo’s brow furrowed. “If you had a problem with the reading material, there was a trash can  _ right there _ ,” he says, smoothing out the paper in his hands.

“No, no, don’t read it, it’s nothing,” Rey protests.

But, naturally, that only means he wants to read it more.

> _ #4: The Still-Broken-Hearted: These women will be jumping back into dating for the first time in a long time. Usually still damaged from their last relationship, all these women will be looking for is sex. Most often, these women were dumped by long-term partners, usually because of decaying appearance or selfish career decisions. Don’t be surprised if one or two of them were cheated on, as well. Good luck getting commitment out of these girls - their trust issues could take years to work through. _ _  
>  _ **How to have the best time with a #4:** One night stand.   
>  **How to get rid of a #4:** Let them leave or leave them the morning after.

Rey can feel the shame crossing her features as Kylo looks up at her, and then back down at the disgusting, soggy paper. She doesn’t say a word, just leaves the room. She feels sick to her stomach knowing that now Kylo understands everything about her. Rey feels bare and vulnerable at being so easy to predict, to write down on a page like she’s not unique, just a cookie cutter of a woman, no longer whole after having her heart broken. Faintly, she hears Kylo calling after her, but she doesn’t stop. She just keeps running.

She leaves the apartment to go sit in the hallway, knees to her chest as she leans against the wall. Rey doesn’t want to freak out or cry or do anything more embarrassing than she already has, but it’s hard. This near-stranger now knows the very reason why she behaves the way she does, and it’s humiliating. He knows she wasn’t enough. He knows she’s damaged, someone’s cast-off.

With trembling fingers, Rey finally gives Finn a call. “R-Rey?” Finn asks, stammering as he answers the phone.

“Finn?” she asks. “Are you alright?”

“I’m great,” Finn says, and he really is. He’s breathing heavily, and Rey most definitely does not need to know that he’s currently sprawled out on the couch, a blanket over his lap, and Poe underneath that blanket, down on his knees. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m at Kylo’s,” Rey says, blinking back the tears welling in her eyes. She doesn’t want to cry. She hates crying. It makes her feel gross and puffy, and it will most definitely make things even weirder with Kylo when he inevitably finds her.

“Ooh,” Finn says, with a hint of a smile. Rey thinks there’s something else there too, though. She can’t tell what he’s up to. “Mr. One Night Stand? I told Poe you’d never go through with it, but I guess you did.”

Rey sniffles. “Stop that. I - I just want to go home.”

“Is he,” Finn stops and takes a heavy breath. He’s trying not to let on that Poe is putting his mouth in places it shouldn’t be while he’s on the phone with Rey. “Is he hurting you?”

“No,” Rey shakes her head. It’s silly, because she knows Finn can’t see her. “It’s just - he found out. Why I did it. What happened with -,” 

Finn sighs, and in the background there’s a moan, and that’s when Rey realizes what’s going on. “You’re busy,” she says calmly. She’s trying not to be upset about it; she’s always known that Finn and Poe like having the apartment to themselves, that this was the best possible scenario for them, this blizzard snowing her in somewhere else. “I’m sorry I interrupted.”

“No, Rey, it’s okay,” Finn insists. “I’ll ah -,” he gasps again, and there’s a shuffling. In the background, Rey hears Poe ask, “Why’d you make me stop?”

Rey sniffles again, hating how especially left out she feels now that Finn and Poe have their relationship and she feels the sting of her ended engagement worse than ever. “I’m sorry, Rey. I’m sorry it’s not going how you thought it would,” Finn insists. He’s much more focused now, and she’s grateful for that. “Is he good to you?”

“Yes,” she says without hesitation. Kylo has been a gentleman for almost the entire time she’s been there, aside from when she was throwing accusations at him. 

“So what’s the problem?” Finn wonders.

Her heart aches and she feels a bit sick as she tries to figure out what the problem is. Why she’s so upset. Rey can’t even think of a good reason. Finn must pick up on this, because he says, “You don’t have to bare your whole soul to him on your first date. Nobody is asking you to do that, I hope.” Rey lets out a half-hearted laugh; Kylo hasn’t asked her a thing about her past. She’s gotten this all worked up in her head. “If you’re not ready to talk about the engagement, then don’t. Tell him that. If he’s as good to you as you say he is, he’ll understand that it’s a conversation for further down the road, if it gets to that.”

Rey sniffles again. She still feels bare and vulnerable and like she’s been ripped open for Kylo to read her like a book, but she appreciates Finn trying. “It’s completely understandable for you to be scared right now, Rey,” Finn adds. That helps her relax even more. “This was a big step that you took. I’m still sort of in shock that you took dating advice from  _ Poe _ , but here we are. Just… enjoy his company. Let loose. Go for round two since the snow is making you stay there a bit longer. And then tomorrow, we’ll have waffles and gossip about this guy. Is he hot?”

Rey groans. “Too hot.”

Finn chuckles. “Look - it’ll all be okay. Just be upfront with him and it’ll all work out,” he insists. After a pause, he adds, “If I really have to come dig you out, I will. I don’t want you getting hurt. But I think if he was going to hurt you by now, he’d have done it.”

“That makes me feel much better,” Rey says flatly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Rey,” Finn says warmly. It’s as much comfort as she’s going to get for now.

Rey hears the door to the apartment open as she ends her phone call with Finn, and her stomach does uncomfortable flops. There are a million things Kylo could say to her, and Rey braces herself for the worst. Never in a million years would she have guessed the words he would say.

“I made grilled cheese.”

She glances up at him, craning her neck. Kylo very gently holds out his hand, and Rey takes it. The fact that, rather than talking about it, Kylo’s first thought had been to make her favorite meal spoke volumes. It was shocking to her. Not even her fiancé had done a thing like that for her. 

Kylo doesn’t release her hand as they walk back into his apartment, not until they’re at the table where there’s two plates with grilled cheese on them. “Thank you,” she says softly, using the sleeve of her sweater to dab at her eyes.

Rey nibbles at the grilled cheese, pleasantly surprised by his thoughtfulness. She doesn’t know what else to say to him, though. Not after he read that article, read her like a book. Finally, when she’s brushing the crumbs off of her hands, he speaks again. “I know how we could take your mind off of things,” he says.

“Oh?” 

Rey quirks an eyebrow and looks up at Kylo. She’s genuinely curious what he’s come up with.

“We should have sex.”

Instantly, her eyes narrow. “Seriously?” she asks, deadpan.

Kylo looks serious about it though, and he nods. “Yes. I’m great at it.”

Rey doesn’t say a word. It’s not like he was terrible or anything, but she’s never actually met a man who made sex mind-blowing for her. Kylo narrows his eyes. “Are you implying I’m not good at it?”

“No, not at all,” Rey replies politely.

She sees a flash of something in Kylo’s eyes, like he’s about to lose his temper or something, but he reigns it in. “So… you’re saying I could improve,” Kylo states through gritted teeth.

“I mean, I’m sure I could as well,” Rey shrugs. “I’ve just been with the one person.”

“It wasn’t perfect, but…”

Rey’s eyes widen and she looks affronted. “I didn’t mean  _ actually _ !”

Kylo stands very suddenly and grabs their empty plates. Rey feels like she’s seriously misstepped, and perhaps Kylo has too, but that just puts them back where they started this morning and she doesn’t want that. Not when she still has hours left here. “Kylo, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” she says quickly, standing up. “Tell me how to fix it.”

Kylo sets the dishes down in the sink and pauses for a moment. Slowly, he turns to Rey and says, “Like… constructive criticism?”

“I meant your mood, but…” she trails off. “Sure,” she nods, conceding. “Give me constructive criticism. How can I be better at sex?”

It’s probably the strangest sentence she’s ever uttered. She doesn’t know what is going to come out of his mouth next, either. “Are we doing this?” Kylo asked. “We’re going to tell each other how to improve?”

Rey shrugs. “Only if it won’t make it weird.”

“Oh, it’ll make it weird. This whole  _ day  _ has been weird.”

Nodding, Rey stands a little taller, steeling herself for what’s to come, and she mentally reminds herself not to get offended as Kylo takes her hand and leads her out to the living room. He guides her to sit down on the sofa, and almost as though he thinks he’s going to lose his nerve, he says, “I’ll go first.”

Rey nods again, looking very serious, and watches as Kylo paces back and forth in front of the sofa. “Okay, so, first of all… you shouldn’t fake it,” he says. “That should be like, rule number one. Always. Girls shouldn’t fake it. If you’re not having a good time, just say so.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Rey says, bemused. “I’ve heard too many horror stories from other girls that men take offense to that. It severely damages their ego. I’d rather pretend I came when I didn’t and let him have a good time than risk offending him.”

“But that’s just setting yourself up for a lifetime of bad sex.”

Shaking her head, Rey says, “Eventually you can start giving suggestions, but… for the most part, things with those guys don’t last long anyway.”

“Oh, and you’d know?” Kylo challenges, getting a little tense with the conversation.

Rey’s bemused smile fades at that and she tenses her jaw. “Just continue.”

“Alright, well… another thing, is make sure you say the guy’s name right? I think I told you a million times yesterday that my name is  _ Kylo _ , not  _ Kyle _ . The sex would have been much hotter if you’d gotten my name right,” he says flatly.

Rey flat-out frowns at that. She hadn’t intended on that, at all. “I’m sorry,” she replies. “Noted.”

“Thank you.”

Thinking he’s done, she starts to stand from the sofa. Kylo puts his hands out though, and says, “No, I’m not done yet.” Rey looks affronted and reluctantly settles back onto the cushions. When she doesn’t protest or speak, Kylo continues, “Also, don’t undress so fast. Every girl I’ve known has wanted the lights off, and she undresses really fast, and then climbs under the blankets, and like… they complain that there’s never enough foreplay but  _ that’s _ foreplay!”

“Wait, so  _ what _ are you suggesting we do?” Rey asks.

“Just take your time. Make a bit of a… show out of it. I don’t know,” Kylo says, suddenly awkward now that he has to give details. “Bend over when you take off your jeans, show off those expensive panties. I know they’re expensive, so don’t try to deny it. Take your time undressing, it’s way hotter. And leave the lights on.”

“Why?”

“So we can see each other!”

Rey’s cheeks are flushed. Seeing each other means seeing the marks, the scars, the little imperfections. She may be slim-figured but she’s not beautiful underneath her layers. She’s got a botched tattoo on her shoulder, scars along her legs and arms from years of working in garages and outdoors. She’s far less beautiful with the lights on. “Alright, are you done now?” Rey asks. She doesn’t look nearly as enthusiastic as she had when this conversation had begun.

“Just one more thing,” Kylo says. He almost looks like he’s about to laugh, the bastard. “You  _ do _ know that ‘blow job’ is just a figure of speech, right? You’re not  _ actually _ supposed to  _ blow _ ?”

“I was  _ breathing! _ ” Rey protests. She colors at the reminder of the exact thing she’d done the night before. It had drawn a funny reaction out of him, and she’d figured that was probably the reason he was bringing it up now. “I don’t know if you know this, but blowing someone means you can’t  _ breathe _ !”

“Just… turn your head, then. Or lean back,” Kylo suggests awkwardly. He hadn’t realized Rey would react in quite that manner.

“Are you done now?” she asks, ready to get up in front of Kylo and start making her own suggestions.

Kylo nods, satisfied. “Yes, I am.”

“Good. Sit down. Now I have some advice for  _ you _ ,” she replies, stomping over to the floor in front of the sofa where Kylo had just been standing.

He sits down casually, arms resting on his legs where they sit splayed open. He watches her with amusement in his eyes, though Rey is sure she sees a flash of fear in there, too. If she weren’t so fired up and mildly offended, she’d probably take it a little easier on him.

“Alright, first,” she starts, counting off on her fingers as she starts pacing the floor. “The alphabet thing isn’t actually that sexy if you concentrate too much. It felt like I was a chalkboard in school. And second? There’s more than one position. I don’t know if you know this, but you’re tall. And broad. And I’m tiny. Mix it up for us little ones in the world. I don’t want to be crushed in bed.”

Kylo stares, his mouth dropped open just a little at how fired up Rey is and how firmly she’s speaking to him. “Oh! And while we’re on that topic, number three - jiggling my breasts during sex doesn’t actually do anything for me. It may look pretty to you but it’s actually sort of uncomfortable. And four!” Rey drops her hands in front of her, to her waist, and holds them there tensely as though she’s holding an invisible person in front of her. “You don’t need to just go at it like a jackhammer. Mix it up. Stay shallow, go deep. Take it slow. Just - mix it up! I know there’s a lot going on down here,” she circles a hand in front of her pelvis, “And there are a lot of places you can touch us that will feel good. So just try things out and take your time figuring out what we like. Don’t just…. thrust and hope for the best.”

Kylo swallows and wonders if she’s done yet. “And, okay… last night, you found a really good angle. Like,  _ really _ good angle. I saw  _ stars _ . So I told you, “right there, don’t stop, I’m about to come,” and what did you do? You changed it up. Can I just ask -- what was your thought process there?”

Rey genuinely would like to know, so she pauses to face Kylo. He swallows, and his voice is a little lower than usual, either out of repressing anger or frustration or something, as he says, “I just… I don’t know, thought I’d do something  _ more _ . Make it more intense for you.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Rey says, wagging her finger at him. “In the future, though, take my word for it and just keep doing what you’re doing. I wouldn’t say that unless I was absolutely sure you’d make me feel better than you could any other way, alright?”

She doesn’t catch on to the fact that she’d said  _ take my word for it _ as though they were going to do this again. After going off on Kylo like this, Rey wouldn’t be surprised if his next move was to banish her from his apartment building for the rest of forever. “And last,” she says, sitting down on the sofa to face him. “This is another thing all guys take offense to and they  _ really _ shouldn’t,” she says. “If you’re going at it, and she’s moaning, and it’s good, but then she reaches down to…  _ help out _ ? Don’t be offended. Sex -- it’s supposed to be a team effort, you know? Working together to make it feel good, right?” Kylo nods. “That’s all it is. She’s not saying you’re not good enough, she’s just saying… she wants it more intense. And it’s because there’s so much going on down there, too. With guys, you just need the friction. With women there’s the inside there’s the outside and around, there’s  _ a lot _ more.”

“Are you done?” Kylo asks. He sounds tense, and Rey takes a breath. Recalling her tirade, she nods and prepares herself to be promptly kicked out.

“Yes, I’m done,” she nods. Rey shifts on the couch and her knee bumps Kylo’s leg. Their breathing hitches at the same time, and when they look up, neither speaks. Neither could speak to who moved first, because in seconds they’re in each other’s arms, right there on the sofa, lips pressed together. It’s not graceful, but rather hot and rushed, Rey climbing onto Kylo’s lap in an instant. He’s holding her tightly, clearly pleased with his size in comparison to hers. Rey’s fingers tangle in his hair and she knows what they’re about to do before he even stands up, lifting her with him.

Their legs find the floor together, and Rey is panting heavily when the kiss breaks and she’s left looking up at Kylo, lips puffy and red. “Do you want to do this?” Kylo asks. After a day full of so many ups and downs, the last thing he wants to do is make her feel obliged to sleep with him again.

Rey nods, rather enthusiastically, and says, “Yes. Please. Do you?”

Kylo chuckles a bit at her manners. It seems like the oddest moment for her to find them. “Yes, I definitely do, Rey.”

She smiles nervously, and he smiles back, a crooked thing, but a smile nonetheless. It makes her heart do a funny jump.

Together they walk into his bedroom, hearts thrumming. Kylo tries to lead Rey onto the bed, but she stops and gently pushes him down onto the edge. She leaves the lights on. She tries to work past all the nervousness and anxiety she feels as she slowly begins to peel off her clothing, layer by layer. It’s easy at first, because she’d worn so many layers. She finds that once she’s down to her bra and jeans, her tights underneath her jeans, that that’s the point where the butterflies in her stomach go into overdrive.

“Is -- is this what you wanted?” she asks softly, her fingers trembling ever so slightly as she unfastens the button on her jeans.

Kylo’s mouth is dry and he wants to try to find his voice so he can respond, but he can’t. Instead, he just swallows past the lump in his throat and nods, so pleased with how the day is progressing. Rey turns to the slide as she shimmies out of her skinny jeans, bending over so Kylo can see her slim profile. Kicking her jeans to the side, she slides her thumbs in the waistband of her black tights, the sheer fabric barely covering her not-so-modest lace panties underneath, the navy blue pair that don’t match her plain light pink bra at all. She probably should have thought of that before she’d come over.

“Keep going,” Kylo encourages her. “You’re beautiful.”

She’s not, though, at least not in her own eyes, and she knows that once she removes these tights, and her underwear -- he’s going to see her scars and he’s going to change his mind about that. The fear of that rejection, especially in broad daylight, soaked in sobriety, is almost more than Rey can handle.

She wants to give him this, though, and more than that, Rey wants to prove to herself that she’s brave, that she can do this. Because the truth is, she wants to. She’s always wanted to be that brave, bold girl in a relationship, who knows how to ask for what she wants. 

Rey shyly turns on her toes again, this time showing off her backside to Kylo as she bends over, sliding the sheer black tights down her legs. She feels her panties showing off plenty of her cheeks, barely covering anything to begin with. Rey hears Kylo’s sharp intake of breath. Once she kicks her tights aside, she looks shyly over her shoulder. “Still good?” she asks.

Kylo nods again. Rey’s arms instinctively cross over her stomach as she turns around, scars littered here and there across her body. She steps closer to Kylo, cheeks flushed. “You’re beautiful,” he tells her again, hands hesitantly reaching out for her hips.

“I haven’t finished yet,” Rey says in a voice hardly above a whisper. “And I’ve got all these scars.”

“I’ve got scars, too,” Kylo replies. 

Very gently, Rey reaches out for the hem of Kylo’s tee shirt. She pulls it up and over his head, ruffling up his hair that had been a bit messy to begin with. Sure enough, littered all over his chest are a few little scars. There’s a line on his abdomen that’s surely from an appendix removal. He’s got marks on his chin, on his cheeks, on his hands. “We look like the clumsiest two people in the entire galaxy,” Rey chuckles softly.

“They look wonderful on you,” Kylo whispers.

Smiling, Rey confesses, “You don’t look so bad yourself.” A shiver shoots down her spine and she remembers that she was in the middle of something. A little nervously, she asks, “Shall I continue?”

Kylo licks his lips. “Please do,” he says. He leans back on his hands, taking in Rey’s body, but never for too long. He only allows himself a few seconds before he looks back up at her, making eye contact. He doesn’t want her to feel like an object to be ogled and stared at. She’s a real person, and she’s nervous, and he understands.

Rey doesn’t even have to try before one of her bra straps sinks low, slipping off her shoulder. She bites her lip, thinking in her head that she’s screwed it all up, but god if that reaction doesn’t make the entire thing hotter, Rey biting her lip. Her muscles flex as she reaches behind her to unclasp her bra. When she lets it fall, she visibly shivers, the room just a bit too cold for her liking.

Her breasts are small and pert, and Kylo remembers touching them the night before. Maybe now that he knows what not to do, he can make it better for her. His entire mind is wiped blank when she hooks her hands in the waistband of her panties, though. She looks gangly and awkward like this, naked and exposed in front of him. At the same time, though, Kylo senses that this is just new for her. That as she grows comfortable in her body, around a person, this could change. But even if it doesn’t - if lanky is all she ever is - he would very much be alright with that.

Kylo tries desperately not to stare too much, or to lick his lips, as he watches her panties drop down her thin legs and rest on the floor with the rest of her clothing. His mouth is dry and she looks  _ so good _ and he doesn’t want to keep his hands to himself anymore. “Can it be your turn now?” she asks, a playful, nervous smile on her face.

He’s reclined back on the bed, and before Kylo can really form a response, she’s reaching out for the buckle on his belt. Kylo’s fingers dance down her sides as she unfastens his jeans. There’s no decorum when she does it, not like when she’d undressed herself. Rey’s fingers hook inside his jeans and his boxers, and she pulls the rest of his clothes off of him in one fell swoop. 

Rey tries not to stare, but he looks incredibly handsome like this, just as bare and naked and exposed as she. He’s got freckles across his entire body, dark specks on fair skin, and she loves that about him. Something about it is indescribably sexy to her. She steps between his legs, her hands gently pushing his dark hair out of his face. Too nervous to find words to say, Rey instead just closes the distance between their mouths, kissing him gently.

Kylo’s hands are warm and steady as he holds her, one of his large hands sliding up her back, pressing her close to him. For as much as he’d like to get angry about the way Rey went off on him, more than anything he just wants to prove her wrong. He wants to let her know that he  _ can _ be good at this, and he’s determined to absolutely blow her mind.

He’s glad to have his strength to use to his advantage, because he can move them around much easier than he might have been able to if they weren’t seven inches apart in height and him much broader than her. Kylo wraps an arm strongly around her waist and rolls them over, pressing her into the mattress. Rey keeps kissing him, tasting him, memorizing this man who’s given her the time of day for two days in a row now - which is more than she can say for nearly anyone in her life aside from Poe and Finn. It’s nice to feel wanted. Needed. Like a person with value.

They scoot up the mattress until her head is on the pillows, and that’s when Kylo breaks the kiss. He looks into her eyes, searching for hesitation, for a change of heart, but sees none. This girl Rey really wants to be there with him. It’s more than Kylo can fully wrap his head around, because she’s beautiful, and he’s…  _ him _ . A loner. A weirdo.

Her breathing becomes more shallow as Kylo gently, reverently almost, trails kisses along her body. He finds the sensitive spot on her neck and resists the urge he has to leave a mark. They’re not there, yet. He can’t mark her as his. She doesn’t belong to anybody and never will, but he’s got no claim to her. His warm hands drift down her sides, over her breasts, thumbs teasing her nipples just barely before he continues moving his mouth lower down his body.

Kylo thinks that perhaps his mouth can do a better job on her breasts than his hands did the night before, and if the low, throaty moans Rey lets out when his mouth finds a nipple and teases gently with his tongue are any indication, he was right about that. She’s much more vocal than she was the night before. She’s not afraid to whimper or moan when he finds the right spot. They hadn’t even talked about that, but he’s glad she’s doing it.

Finally his mouth drags even lower, over her belly and down to her core. Rey feels so wanton, having her legs spread for him, no blankets to cover anything up, no darkness to hide within. The lights are on and Kylo’s face is  _ right there _ and he’s looking at her like she’s a work of art. She has to look away; it’s almost too much for her, too good to be true. 

Rey sucks in a breath when she feels his mouth on her. He’s tracing her clit with his tongue, but it’s less clear this time that it’s the alphabet -  _ if _ it’s the alphabet at all. Whatever he decided to do after her suggestion is  _ working _ . She can hear how wet she is, feel the warm throbbing heat between her legs. She should be blushing furiously at the soft slurps she hears as Kylo keeps going, sending shivers down her spine as he works her with his tongue so much better than he had the night before. 

Her toes curl into the blankets and when he finds a particularly good spot and presses in with his mouth, her back arches off the bed. Rey gasps and one of her hands finds his hair and tugs just a little. She hears Kylo gasp and she releases his hair right away. Rey can’t bite back her groan when Kylo leans away, because she wants him back there, wants release, and she was getting  _ so close _ . “You can do that,” he says breathlessly, reaching out to grab her hand before she stuffs it under the pillows beneath her head. She must look confused because he clarifies, “My hair. It’s okay. Please.”

It’s a curious confession, something brave for Kylo to do when it’s only their second time, but Rey appreciates his honesty, his telling her what he likes. She lets her hand drop back to his hair and in moments, his mouth is back on her, teasing her clit, a finger sliding along her wet folds. “K-Kylo,” she gasps. She said it right that time. She hopes he noticed. “I’m close. I’m so close.”

True to form, Kylo takes her suggestions to heart and doesn’t stop a single thing he’s doing. In seconds, Rey reaches her climax, unable to bite back a soft moan. Her grip in his hair is tight, probably painfully so, but Kylo works her through it, ministrations slowing but not yet stopping. Her chest heaves with each breath she takes and Rey’s cheeks flush as she notices Kylo watching her, the way her breasts move with each breath. She notices the wet sheen on his chin, how shiny and red his lips are, and Rey can’t help but beckon him up for a kiss. She’s curious and would like a taste, and she finds that she quite likes kissing him.

Kylo’s attentiveness just fuels Rey’s, and reciprocating what he’s done for her is top of her list in her head. She tries to push at his shoulder to roll them over, and Kylo gets the hint. He smiles as he lands on his back, his hair an absolute mess on his pillows. Rey’s straddling his stomach but can feel how hard he is just near her spine. She kisses him once more before scooting further down the bed, her intentions clear. He grips her arm, though, and pulls her up for another kiss. “D’you want me to --?” she mumbles against his lips.

Kylo’s eyes stay shut as he chuckles. His voice is deep and husky as he admits, “I won’t last long already. And I can’t bounce back as fast as you.”

Rey kisses him again, the thought of having that kind of effect on him sending shockwaves through her brain. She’s making him fall apart like a teenage boy. She loves it. There are still condoms on his bedside table, brazenly left out from the night before. Rey gets a mischievous glint in her eye as she climbs off of him to go grab one. 

Kylo sits up in bed, pushing his pillows aside. He reaches out to take the condom from Rey, but she holds it out of his reach and says, “Ah ah ah, no, I’m going to do it.”

It’s not that she doesn’t trust him, because at this point, she does. Fully. It’s just that if she doesn’t get to taste, she’d at least like to get to touch. Very slowly -  _ too _ slowly, Kylo would say - she rolls the condom onto him, stroking a few times for good effect. Kylo groans, his head rolling back against the headboard, a smile on his face. “You’re going to be the death of me,” he mumbles before looking back up to meet Rey’s eyes.

She’s smiling and climbing back onto his lap. Rey feels a bit unsteady, so Kylo offers, “We don’t have to do it this way.”

“No, I want to,” Rey insists. “I’ve only ever done it the boring old missionary way. Ever. I… I want to give this a try. Please? If it’s not good, we can quit.”

Kylo shuts her up with a kiss. “Relax,” he says. “You just seemed nervous.”

“I  _ am _ nervous,” she argues.

“Don’t be,” he quips back.

Rey holds him around his shoulders as she straddles his lap, his hardness pressed up against her lower back. He’s ready, and she’s ready, and here he is, being so sweet to her that she’s rendered speechless. Kylo’s hands are gentle on her hips as she lifts herself up on her knees. One of her arms stays around his shoulders, steadying herself, and the other reaches down between them. 

Entirely focused on what’s next, Rey bites her lip and lines him up. Very slowly she begins to sink down, her breath caught in her throat. He stretches her out, especially in this position, though it’s nothing she hasn’t felt before. He’s bigger than she’s used to, and her mind blanks out when she feels him slowly sliding deeper, filling her up. “Breathe,” he’s whispering in her ear, one hand rubbing her back gently. “Breathe, Rey.”

She leans her forehead to his and drops her mouth open in a soft  _ oh _ as she takes a breath - inhale, exhale - adjusting to this new position, new stretch. “Are you good?” Kylo asks. He’s speaking in whispers. The moment is too tender for voices any louder than that.

“I’m good,” Rey nods. “So  _ full _ ,” she confessed. “But very, very good.”

Kylo smiles. He presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth before Rey drops their foreheads together again. She holds him around his shoulders lazily, rolling her hips around experimentally. Rey doesn’t know yet what will feel best. Every nerve in her body feels like it’s on fire, completely surrounded by Kylo. 

He uses one of his hands to guide her hips, rocking her up and then down. Rey moans at that, the stretch a constant reminder that they’re here, together, and this is different than last time - better, for so many reasons. She forgets how to breathe again, taking breaths frantically whenever she can find the focus for it.

Rey loses all track of time as she rocks on Kylo’s lap, his strong arms enveloping her, his mouth peppering kisses on her neck. She’s so close, yet feels so far away from climax still. Kylo might pick up on that, or he may just be close himself, but he takes one of her hands from his shoulder and drops it down between them. Rey looks up at him with question in her eyes. “Touch yourself,” Kylo whispers.

Biting her lip, Rey nods and drops her hand down between their bodies, fingertips finding her clit. Kylo watches for a moment as her hand moves in time with their hips. He can feel her tightening around him as she adds the new sensation, and he’d always known it would make her feel better but never realized it’d do things for him, too. 

“I won’t last much longer,” she whispers to him. “Not like this.”

“Good,” Kylo whispers against her lips. He steals a slow, heavy kiss, lazy brushes of mouths together when the effort to kiss becomes too much, too clouded by pleasure.

Curious to see if he can help her along, Kylo reaches down between them and replaces Rey’s fingers on her clit with his thumb. He circles at her just as he’d watched her do to herself. The arm circling his shoulders grips tighter and the rocking of her hips becomes erratic. “Oh god,” she whispers. “Kylo…”

His lips drag along her neck as she whispers his name, rocking her hips frantically. She doesn’t even need to say it; he can tell she’s close, and this time she’s not faking it. Her whole body is trembling with it, every muscle in her body tense, working for release. Kylo knows he’ll fall apart as soon as she does, so he circles his thumb faster, rocks his hips as best he can beneath her.

When Rey comes, her whole body trembles with it, soft moans tumbling from her lips to his ear, like a secret only the two of them will ever share. Kylo feels her coming before he hears it, the way her muscles tense and squeeze around him, urging his own climax out of him. He moans into the soft, tender skin of her neck, his hands stilling and holding her hips as she all but collapses on top of him, spent. 

They could both say a million things, but the silence is nice. It’s a warm, comforting silence. Their bodies are sticky and lethargic, and Rey very gently manages to find enough strength to lift herself up, to let their bodies separate. Her legs are still shaky so Kylo’s the one who gets out of bed for the both of them. He disposes of the used condom and returns with a warm cloth, offering it to Rey so she can wipe up some of the sticky wetness from between her legs. She can’t remember a time ever in her life when she’s gotten quite so wet, either alone or with a partner.

When she’s done, the cloth gets tossed on the floor with their clothes in favor of Kylo sliding into bed next to Rey. She clings to him immediately, all her muscles soft and relaxed. Rey curls up against him, head on his chest, one leg lazily draped over one of his. Kylo smiles and kisses her forehead. “Better?” he asks.

“So much better,” she replies before they both drift off to sleep, sated and spent.

\--

Rey wakes the next morning to several different sounds, though it takes her a few moments to realize what they are. There are plows outside, slowly pushing away the last things keeping her in Kylo’s apartment. Those snowdrifts kept her here, helped her connect with someone in a way she hadn’t in a long time. Part of Rey wishes that the plows would just go away and leave her trapped there another day.

The other sound is an annoying, incessant buzzing on the bedside table. She hears a grumble behind her and warm arms encircling her waist. “Answer it,” mumbles Kylo.

Rey stays warm and content in Kylo’s arms when she answers the phone, completely calm about the fact that she’s naked in bed with a near-stranger while talking to her best friend. “Hi Finn,” she says groggily as he answers.

“What’s going on? I thought you’d be home by now,” he says.

“Why?” Rey asks sleepily.

“The subway lines have been open for hours. Last I heard, you wanted to get out of there. Fast,” Finn explains.

Rey can tell he’s worried about her, and it’s sweet, really. But he doesn’t have to be. “I’m fine,” she insists. She feels Kylo’s arms hold her a little bit tighter, and she smiles. “I decided to stay the night again. We had a good time.”

Something about the tone of her voice must give her away, because Finn nearly shouts, “Are you naked right now!?”

Rey hears shuffling on the other line and a yelp of protest from Finn before Poe is on the phone, asking her how the sex was, if they’d used protection, and if she was going to see him again. “Oh my god, shut  _ up _ , Poe,” Rey mumbles, to embarrassed and tired to find hilarity in the situation. Later that day, though? She’d probably laugh hysterically at his interrogation.

Finn wrestles the phone away from his boyfriend and asks, “So, how long are you staying there?”

“I’ll probably be home in a bit. Just going to take my time, you know?”

“Take your time, huh?” Finn asks, bemused. Somewhere in the background, Poe shouts, “Use protection!”

Rey sighs. “I’m fine. Let’s plan for dinner, okay? I’ll cook.” 

That response seems to placate Finn in the short term, and he agrees to it before hanging up. Rey rolls over in bed, a smile on her face. Kylo is wide awake now, watching her with interest. “You know, I hardly know anything about you, but I bet I know exactly what kinds of guys those two are,” Kylo observes.

“They’re good at fitting stereotypes,” Rey jokes. “Finn is the overprotective best friend and Poe is his slightly-perverted, very sexual boyfriend.”

“And then there’s you?” Kylo asks, quirking an eyebrow.

Rey nods. “And then there’s me.”

Kylo pushes some loose hairs out of Rey’s face and asks, “What’s your family like?”

Her face darkens slightly, her eyes darting away from his. Instead of pushing him away, though, she curls closer to him, hiding her face in his chest. “That’s… a long story,” she whispers. “I’m not saying I won’t tell it, but… maybe not now. We’re still in the honeymoon phase.”

“So we’ll file that in the ‘save for later’ category along with the story of your last relationship?” Kylo asks softly. There isn’t a fleck of judgment in his voice, and Rey is endlessly grateful for that.

“Please,” she whispers.

Kylo kisses her forehead. “Of course.” He leaves the rest of that statement unspoken on his tongue:  _ Anything for you. _

Rey reaches between them to take Kylo’s hand in hers. She threads their fingers together, holding his hand gently. “Can I see you again?” she asks nervously.

“I’d like that,” Kylo confesses.

“Even if I’m the damaged girl with baggage and self-esteem issues and -,”

“Yes.”

Rey doesn’t usually take well to being interrupted, but in this moment, she appreciates it. She looks up at Kylo and smiles. The words  _ thank you _ go unspoken between them.

The morning moves on as most mornings do, with Kylo making them both breakfast and some toast before he helps Rey gather her clothes from his bedroom floor. She’s wearing an old sweatshirt of his with her skinny jeans, her shirt smelling a little too ripe for either of their tastes. “Thank you,” she says as she stands in the doorway of his apartment, clutching her purse to her side, several articles of clothing spilling out of it.

“Anytime,” Kylo replies.

He kisses her again, taking his time. Rey pulls away first and smiles at him before walking down the hallway and out of the building. She’s never been good at goodbyes.

Kylo pulls out his phone to text her something cheesy, something she’ll probably roll her eyes at, only to realize that he hadn’t actually gotten her phone number. He curses under his breath and pulls on the first pair of shoes he can find before darting out of the building and down the sidewalk. “Rey!” he shouts when he sees her, only a few yards down from the door of his building.

She spins around on her heel. Her eyes go wide, but rather than looking tender and sweet as she had inside, she looks accusatory. “You’d better not turn this into a scene out of one of those dumb romantic comedies!” she warns.

Oh. Right. She doesn’t like rom coms. “Fine, I won’t kiss you,” he says hurriedly. He’s freezing, since he’d forgotten his jacket in his hurry. Holding out his phone, he asks, “Can I at least have your number?”

Rey’s cheeks flush and she takes the phone, uttering some sort of apology as she puts in her information for him. “Call me, okay?” she asks.

“I thought the modern thing to do was to text?” Kylo asks.

Rey smiles. “It is, but I like your voice.”

Now it’s Kylo’s turn to blush. Rey spins on her heel again, her hair flinging over her shoulder. She leaves Kylo there on the sidewalk, hiding the smile on her face from him as she walks into the nearest subway entrance to make her way home.

When Rey walks into her apartment on the phone, laughing about something, Finn and Poe instantly corner her. Poe is applauding her, and Finn starts to ask a million questions without so much as letting her kick off her shoes.

Rey holds up her hand and then points at her phone, grinning from ear to ear. “Yeah, I’m still here,” she says to whomever she’s speaking to on the phone. “You would not  _ believe _ how nosy my roommates are, Kylo. They practically smothered me when I walked through the doors.” Rey waves at them as she wanders into her bedroom and closes the door, quite pleased at the test of patience she’s just put upon Finn and Poe. They’re not going to last very long, waiting for her to finish talking to Kylo on the phone. They want details.

She doesn’t quite mind, though. If this is her new normal, then she will happily take it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Come say hi in the comments or reyssolo.tumblr.com


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